Reading for Understanding and the AASL Standards

• How can this approach help students to "inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge"? (Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, 4)
• What can I do to support students as they "draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge"? (Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, 5)

Student readiness and relationships

• Do students in your school have the skills to read or are they provided with opportunities to practice independently reading a variety of different types of texts that they might encounter in their high school and postsecondary classes and future careers?
• As a school librarian, how can I show I value the knowledge that students bring-- not just the knowledge I want to give?

The school library media program

• How can we encourage the development and practice of literacy skills in our library or media center?
• How can the library or media center emphasize or express the relationship between literacy and society?
• How does the library support or market the importance of and process of Sustained Silent Reading (SSR)?
• How does the school library program promote a spirit of inquiry?

The school library media collection

"The school library media specialist acquires and promotes current, high-quality, high-interest collections of books and other reading resources in multiple formats" (Empowering Learners, 21).

• Does the school library or media center collection currently include texts and materials that will support an Academic Literacy Program?
• Does the library collection include a variety of nonfiction and fiction books about topics that interest students that students can use for SSR? Are they arranged in ways that they will be easy for students to access?

The school library media environment

• Does the library come across as a safe place for student to discuss their questions and confusion with reading?
• Are essential questions visible in the library (like teachers post essential questions in their classrooms)?
• Do the library staff promote a sense of learning as a social activity-- or do students feel like staff are there only to help them locate resources?

Collaboration

• How can we support the classroom instructors who are working to implement an Academic Literacy Program or improve literacy in different disciplines across the curriculum?
• How can the library support student motivation and teachers' specific goals and instruction related to reading motivation?
• When I am collaborating with faculty, do I approach it with the necessary schema? Or do I treat every situation the same?
• Are the classroom teachers and I keeping each other informed about student preparation for reading/research? Are we overlapping in material-- or are we leaving gaps between each other?

Professional Development

• How can I help to organize productive, regular professional development to encourage reading apprenticeships among faculty members?
• What data can I provide to persuade teachers, administrators, and parents that our students need reading support?